Sean Donovan
Gateway
15 September - 15 October 2017
Opening - Friday, 15 September 2017, 7-9 pm
M 2 3 Project Room
209 Morgan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237
Sean Donovan’s exhibit takes its name from the definition - “a means of access or entry to a place” – Gateway extends the artist’s investigation of authoritarian jurisdiction and architectural redeployment. The exhibition explores the cultural response to over-reaching national leadership and government excess, while intimating the need for protection, deliverance, and social revitalization. The works in the exhibition were informed and developed through Donovan’s practice which includes physically exploring and subverting existing architecture, as well as his obsession with the emotional implications of public surveillance.
The sculptural elements of Gateway are an amalgam of existing and fabricated components imposing barriers within the exhibition space, both physical and psychological. A suspended metal structure is charged with an electric current similar to those used for herding livestock. A heating transformer is mounted adjacent to the structure, humming with 10k volts of amplified electricity.
Sean Donovan was born in Chicago in 1987. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, and a Master of Fine Arts from School of Visual Arts, New York. Recent exhibitions include Public, Private, Secret (collaboration with David Reinfurt) at International Center of Photography (ICP), New York; and Tuesday, the 17th at AC Institute, New York.
Sean Donovan
Not a good choice, 2017 (amplifier)
oil transformer, wire, Plexiglas, hot rolled steel, microphone, amplifier
24 x 40 inches (61 x 102 cm)
audio excerpt of live feed
TRT: 0:17